Jessica! I was totally obsessed with it...and then I hit secondary school and suddenly there were dozens of them everywhere. I still think it's got a pretty sound but I know so many I probably couldn't count them all on both hands. I also loved Sophia, and still do, but it seemed to skyrocket out of nowhere which put me off having it on my list. Popularity doesn't phase me so much, trendiness does.

For boys it was Lucas, which is still my absolute favourite boys' name ever. I guess that could be considered kind of trendy, but it's probably the only name I could keep on my list regardless. I adore it. Another one was Liam, which I still like, but prefer as a nn for William.

My taste is pretty consistent. I like names with connections to literature (particularly children's literature) and history (particularly the Renaissance), botany and astronomy. Think dashing librarian detective. I still adore many of the same names I did when I first found Nameberry (Sylvie, Marlowe), but others (Roscoe, Iris) I've fallen in love with more recently. I no longer care as much about popularity, but I prefer to stay out of the Top 200 (with some notable exceptions).

I've always loved to write since I was quite young and I used to name all my girl characters things like Madison, Natalie, Natasha, Emily, Grace, etc.
For boys I loved Sam (still very much do) Noah, James. My taste now is kind of all over the map but I've dropped a lot of those names. They were popular growing up but with the exception of Sam, James and Grace none really appeal to me at all.

I remember when I was little I had a cabbage patch kid that I got from my grandparents and I named him Alex. I also had a toy cat that I named Milo. For a really long time I loved the name Dominic after I heard it on a movie. It was a name I had never heard before and after that I kept looking for new names. I can't say that I like it at all anymore, but that was my first name love. Over the years I've also liked Gabriel and Jamal (lol) but now I don't like them. I have always wanted twin boys and told my mom that if I ever had them I would name them Tristan and Noah. I still like those names but they are too popular for me now. It's always been hard for me to like girls names. I think my one teddy bear was Nikki.

Samantha. At nine, I was sure that that was what I was going to name my first daughter. Fast forward about twenty years to when I'm actually naming my first baby and Samantha isn't even on the long list.